Karachi, [17/03/2025] – Educational institutes of the city must boost their conditions related to health, safety and environment (HSE) to avoid any untoward incident, agreed participants of a recent collaboration.
They took note of the fact that 70 percent of residential, commercial and industrial buildings in the city lack an adequate fire safety system, as pointed out by a recent report, and emphasized that failure to adhere to building codes during construction has resulted in substantial loss of life and property in the event of fires.
They noted that the issue has assumed alarming proportions, with such incidents already reaching 3,000 in Karachi in the past year alone.
The alarming situation stresses the need for providing HSE training to university students.
To address this, Ziauddin University has entered an agreement with Grow Safe (Pvt) Ltd. – Pakistan’s leading HSE training, consultancy and compliance solutions provider – under the Higher Education Development Program (HEDP) of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
According to the agreement, GSPL will conduct a detailed HSE Gap Assessment of the entire campus as per international standards, establish an HSE system, train engineers, assist the varsity in designing, installation, commissioning and annual maintenance of fire hydrant and suppression systems, extinguishers refilling, fire load calculations, energy conservation surveys, lux monitoring, noise level survey, PPE supplies, and training and consultancy.
It will also assist in designing a complete HSE curriculum for all ZU departments and deliver training, boosting HEC ranking by means of a robust safety culture, specialized courses and a social management system, and highlight HSE activities at the campus via social media.
ZU will partner with GSPL on joint research projects, leveraging the university's expertise and facilities, host workshops, conferences and seminars on HSE cobranded with the company to promote knowledge dissemination and community engagement, facilitate internships or project-based collaborations to gain hands-on experience and offer consultancy from the faculty in engineering, environmental sciences and management to support the HSE provider’s initiatives and projects.
It will also develop customized educational modules or certification programs in collaboration with GSPL, enhancing HSE competency and skills, highlight the company’s contributions and partnership on its social media platforms, newsletters and events, and provide academic input and validation to the curriculum being developed by the company to ensure alignment and relevance with the academic standards.